Touchdesigner Stories

Hello Everyone,

I wish to start on my journey with Touchdesigner, I watched some tutorials, workshops etc. It all seems super interesting but also overwhelming. I am seeking advice/motivation from you all. Your stories, how did you guys start? what was your approach to learning touch? What were the most difficult obstacles? The learning curve? I am 35 years old coming from a motion design background, am I late? Would love to hear what you all have to say. Thanks! :slight_smile:

I donā€™t work with Touchdesigner (yet?), I mostly play with it during weekends. Connecting boxes with wires is like playing with lego. There is a huge satisfaction when you get something look alike what you had in mind. It seems so complicated at first that when you actually achieve something, you feel smart. :blush:

I come from a graphics/motion design and started TD around you age too, 4 years ago :smiley:

Are you too late? I think not, there was never a better time to learn TD thereā€™s more and more ressources available and TD is getting better too. It depend on your work situation though; will TD benefit you in the work youā€™re doing / what to do.

IMO bringing together interactivity and different kinds of data in and environment that both coder and artist ā€˜friendlyā€™ (because itā€™s visual) is TD strength. If your work is not data driven or interactive other tools could be used (take a look at notch if you just want wow effect / donā€™t need to build custom things from scratch :stuck_out_tongue:)

At first I had a hard time wrapping my head around basic TD concepts and had no knowledge of python + it took me a while to really understand chops (channels vs samples). Understanding chops (through 3d instancing and LED control) and basic python might have been the two biggest improvements in my TD life. A couple of years later iā€™m still learning but things got much much easier. Thereā€™s a real satisfaction in finding the most efficient ways of solving problems. :slight_smile:

Learning requires lots of trial and error and reading on the wiki. Working around real programmers helps too.

Thanks for your replies guys! Some useful insights. Playing with it to start off seems like a good route to take. I want to move to a more creative technologist role, thatā€™s my motivation to learn touch, to create Interactive installations and stage setups/designs too. I think i should conceive mini projects for myself and try and achieve them by learning whatever needs to be learnt to create it.

[quote=ā€œguaranaā€]
I come from a graphics/motion design and started TD around you age too, 4 years ago :smiley:"

Relieved to hear this :smiley:

Once again thank you for your responses, means a lot!